Bridgewater Advisors Inc. Makes New $237,000 Investment in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Bridgewater Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 14,098 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $237,000.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of AT&T by 12.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 46,265 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $776,000 after buying an additional 5,161 shares during the last quarter. Mission Wealth Management LP lifted its holdings in AT&T by 26.1% during the fourth quarter. Mission Wealth Management LP now owns 54,031 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $907,000 after purchasing an additional 11,189 shares during the last quarter. WealthTrust Axiom LLC increased its stake in shares of AT&T by 13.0% in the fourth quarter. WealthTrust Axiom LLC now owns 117,723 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,975,000 after purchasing an additional 13,575 shares in the last quarter. Certuity LLC raised its position in shares of AT&T by 86.3% in the fourth quarter. Certuity LLC now owns 293,519 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,925,000 after purchasing an additional 135,980 shares during the period. Finally, Norden Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of AT&T by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 45,790 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $768,000 after buying an additional 2,977 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on T shares. Barclays raised shares of AT&T from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $20.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday. TheStreet raised AT&T from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on AT&T from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of AT&T from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $18.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Oppenheimer raised shares of AT&T from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, January 19th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, AT&T presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $20.81.

AT&T Price Performance

T stock traded down $0.12 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $16.90. The company had a trading volume of 31,792,882 shares, compared to its average volume of 39,373,371. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $16.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $16.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The company has a market capitalization of $120.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.13, a P/E/G ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.57. AT&T Inc. has a 1 year low of $13.43 and a 1 year high of $18.16.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. AT&T had a return on equity of 14.63% and a net margin of 11.13%. The business had revenue of $30.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that AT&T Inc. will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a $0.2775 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.57%. AT&T’s payout ratio is 59.68%.

AT&T Company Profile

AT&T Inc provides telecommunications and technology services worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Communications and Latin America. The Communications segment offers wireless voice and data communications services; and sells handsets, wireless data cards, wireless computing devices, carrying cases/protective covers, and wireless chargers through its own company-owned stores, agents, and third-party retail stores.